US Navy Sealab Program

Divers were once limited in the time they could work underwater and the depths they could reach, but Dr. George Bond theorized that saturation techniques using a controlled gas mixture would let them stay underwater longer and dive deeper by delaying all required decompression until the end of their stay on the seabed. The Navy's Man in the Sea Program tested this idea with Sealab I, America's first open sea test of these techniques. Built at the Navy base from two minesweeper floats, Sealab I served as an underwater home where four US Navy divers, breathing a helium-oxygen mixture, lived in saturation for 11 days at a depth of 193 feet of seawater in the waters of Bermuda to prove Dr. Bond's Saturation Theory. After its 5th anniversary in 2014, volunteers restored the habitat and recommissioned Sealab I on Veterans Day 2016.

Panama City Beach, Florida · United States